NEC: Nearly 600,000 invalid votes cast in polls

NEC: Nearly 600,000 invalid votes cast in polls

The National Election Committee (NEC) said on Monday that there were nearly 600,000 invalid ballots cast in Sunday’s national elections, adding that the issue was not unusual in a democracy.

According to the preliminary results, voter turnout was 6,946,164, or 82.17 percent, of which 596,775 were invalid – around nine per cent.

“Every country has valid and invalid ballots. It’s just that in Cambodia there have been more invalid votes than in previous elections. It may reflect the will of the voters, but whatever it is, we cannot interpret because the vote is confidential,” said NEC deputy secretary-general Som Sorida.

In the 2013 national elections, there were a total of 108,085 invalid ballots or 1.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Nicfec), said the number of invalid ballots in the Kingdom’s elections was high compared to other countries.

“Around nine per cent of voters destroyed their ballots, meaning they were dissatisfied. There was no party they liked,” he said.

Sok Touch, president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC), echoed the NEC’s position.

“In a democracy, people have the right to cast invalid ballots. There are those who are satisfied and dissatisfied . . . Voter turnout was 82 percent, but the number of invalid ballots was only nine percent, so it’s not a majority,” he said.

Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) spokesman Sok Eysan said voters’ education was to blame.

“The level of people’s knowledge is not the same, that’s why some ballots were valid and some were not. They were isolated cases that have happened before,” he said, reiterating that the invalid ballots did not reflect the voters’ will.

“Wrong ticking was not a result of voters’ dissatisfaction. It was because they did not understand how to tick. We cannot read people’s minds. When people don’t understand, they don’t know how to tick."

“It had nothing to do with people’s sympathy for the former opposition party that has died . . . That’s why voter turnout was high. They did not even care about their ‘Clean Finger’ [campaign],” Eysan said.

Cheam Channy, the former opposition lawmaker with the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said: “People went to vote because they were forced to and they cast invalid ballots. It doesn’t reflect success,” he said.

MOST VIEWED

Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Hun Sen requesting a delay of school reopening across the Kingdom until November, when the new academic year begins.
In his letter, Chuon Naron said the postponement is warranted to avoid the new

The Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Immigration (GDI) announced that it would not grant visa extensions to foreigners staying in Cambodia if their names are not listed on the Foreigners Present in Cambodia System (FPCS) by July 1.
Foreign nationals can register in the

The Covid-19 risk level for individual transmission is at an “alarming rate” in the Kingdom and its probability is “not low”, warned Health Ministry spokesperson Or Vandine.
“Cambodia’s coronavirus scenario is classified as being at an early stage of the pandemic because of ongoing

Some of the roughly 30,000 workers from factories and enterprises across the Kingdom who went on leave during Khmer New Year began their government-imposed 14-day quarantine on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference while visiting workers at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone on Monday, Ministry

The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has instructed enterprises, business owners and travel agencies in five provinces to prepare the proper forms for the suspension of employment contracts.
This, it said, will make it easier for the ministry to transfer $40 a month to workers

While the majority of Cambodians have paid heed to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s order to stay put and not travel during the Khmer New Year – the holidays of which were also postponed – several hundred have left Phnom Penh nonetheless.
They have allegedly breached provincial

Top oil producers struggled to finalise production cuts during a virtual summit held by Group of 20 (G20) energy ministers on Friday, despite US President Donald Trump’s mediation efforts to end a standoff with Mexico.
The final G20 communique appeared to gloss over simmering divisions

The government on Friday eased the district and provincial border restrictions issued on Thursday. People are now allowed to cross districts within their provinces.
Phnom Penh and Kandal province are to be treated as a single region where people are allowed to travel freely.
In

The Cambodian Higher Education Association has claimed that 113 private educational establishments are facing bankruptcy because of their inability to pay rent and staff salaries in light of nationwide school closures caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
It said the financial trouble started when the Ministry of